Granite Outcrops at Tipi Flat |
The lava-flow layers of basalt poured out of rifts in the crust when the North American continental crust moved westward over the Yellowstone plume, during the warm, moist time of the Miocene. The lava flowed here between 17 and 12 million years ago, and the resulting layers of chocolaty basalt make up the Canyon’s walls and rolling flanks. Face Rock consists of granite covered by those profuse basalt flows and then exposed by the slow but constant erosion of Lawyer’s Creek.
He speaks in a voice far more ancient than any other here in the Canyon. He is extremely patriarchal, full of obscurity and talks out of the murkiness common to the planet before tricksters like Coyote and Raven came to live here. Yet, I think as the eons of time passed him by, he identified with Coyote’s and Raven’s personalities, and he has come to embrace those trickster characteristics, almost to a fault; that is if you can accept that the “fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil” can even be applied to such an ancient personality. Even so, when he does speak, he possesses the
Face Rock with a Shadowed Face |
He was in a bit of a dark mood today. He was in a much better mood the day I posed with him for my Flying B Ranch business card portrait. My mood overflowed with joy to visit with him again, and I didn’t let him intimidate me with his dark face.
Picture on the Flying B Ranch Historian's Card |
He has two faces whether he wants you to see them or not. His head is one; his exterior face, the stoic face. The other is in his eye, the window to the soul. Not everyone sees this inner face. I knew him for years and never saw it, until an especially perceptive and detailed friend pointed it out to me. Dana is often more aware of spirits than most. She directed me to his eye and the window to his soul. The trickster is more evident in this inner face, as opposed to his stoic granite head. It is a good and wise communication practice to look into the eyes.
Face Rock's Trickster Eye Face
Face Rock's Trickster Eye Face
Because Easter is almost upon us, I wanted to ask Face Rock about the resurrection of the dead. I always flinch a little when I hear the word or use the word Easter for the Jewish Feast of Firstfruits. Easter is a cognate of Ishtar, a Babylonian goddess of fertility, an outlandish name for Christians to attach to the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. If the prophets are right, Jesus defeated death a long while before sunrise on Firstfruits, which like all Jewish days began at sundown not sunrise. Passover begins at sundown of the full moon, the first day of the week (our Sunday) is Firstfruits and the whole week of the Passover is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. How Istar got involved is too long a story here. I want to tell you what Face Rock told me about the resurrection of the dead.
When I asked, "Old one, what do you know about the resurrection of the dead?"
He told me, "Remember this story."
Coyote and the Shadow
People
Coyote [itsaya' ya]
and his wife were dwelling nearby. His wife became ill, and she died. Then
Coyote became very, very lonely. He did nothing but weep for his wife.
Then the death spirit
[pa yawit] came to him and said, "Coyote, do you pine for your
wife?"
"Yes, friend, I long for her most painfully," replied
Coyote.
"I could take you to the place where your wife has gone, but, I
tell you, you must do everything just exactly as I say. Not once are you to disregard
my commands and do something else."
"Yes," replied Coyote,
"yes, friend, and what could I do? I will do everything you
say."
Then the ghost [ts' a' wtsaw] told him, "Yes. Now let us go."
Coyote
added, "Yes let it be so that we are going." They went.
Then he said
to Coyote again, "You must do whatever I say. Do not
disobey."
"Yes, yes, friend. I have been pining so deeply, and why
should I not heed you?" Coyote could see the spirit clearly. He appeared
to be only a shadow.
They started and went along over the plain.
"Oh, there are many horses
hereabouts; it looks like a roundup," exclaimed the
ghost.
"Yes," replied Coyote, though he really saw none. "Yes
there are many horses." They arrived now near the place of the dead.
The
ghost knew that Coyote could see nothing, but he said, "Oh look, such
quantities of serviceberries! Let us pick some to eat.
Now when you see me
reach up, you too will reach up. When I bend the limb down, you too will pull
your hands down."
"Yes," Coyote said to him, "so be it; I
will do that." The ghost reached up and bent the branch down, and Coyote
did the same. Although he could see no berries, he imitated the ghost in
putting his hand to and from his mouth in the same manner of eating. Thus they
picked and ate berries. Coyote watched him carefully and imitated every action.
When the ghost would put his hand into his mouth, Coyote did the same.
"Such good serviceberries these
are," commented the ghost.
"Yes, friend, it is good that we have
found them," agreed Coyote.
"Now let us go." And they went on.
"We are about to arrive," the ghost told him. "There is a long,
a very, very long lodge.
Your wife is there
somewhere. Just wait and let me ask someone." In a little while the ghost
returned and said to Coyote, "Yes, they have told me where your wife is.
We are coming to a door through which we will enter. You will do in every way
exactly what you see me do. I will take hold of the door flap, raise it up,
and, bending low, will enter. Then you too will take hold of the door flap and
do the same." They proceeded in this manner to enter the lodge. It
appeared that Coyote's wife was sitting near the entrance.
The ghost said to
Coyote, "Sit here beside your wife." They both sat. The ghost added,
"Your wife is now going to prepare food for us." Coyote could see
nothing, except that he was sitting on an open prairie where nothing was in
sight. Yet he could feel the presence of the shadow. "Now she has prepared
our food. Let us eat." The ghost reached down and then brought his hand to
his mouth. Coyote could see nothing but the prairie dust. They ate. Coyote
imitated all the movements of his companion. When they had finished and the
woman had apparently put the food away, the ghost said to Coyote, "You
stay here. I must go around to see some people." He went out, but he
returned soon. "Here we have conditions different from those you have in
the land of the living. When it gets dark here, it has dawned in your land; and
when it dawns for us, it is growing dark for you."
Now it began growing
dark, and Coyote seemed to hear people whispering, talking in faint tones, all
around him. Then darkness set in. Oh, Coyote saw many fires in a longhouse. He
saw that he was in a very, very large lodge, and there were many fires burning.
He saw the various people. They seemed to have shadow-like forms, but he was
able to recognize different persons. He saw his wife sitting by his side. He
was overjoyed, and he joyfully greeted all his old friends who had died long
ago. How happy he was. He would march down the aisles between the fires, going
here and there, and talk with the people. He did this throughout the night. Now
he could see the doorway through which he and his friend had entered. At last it
began to dawn, and his friend came to him and said, "Coyote, our night is falling, and in a little
while you will not see us. But you must stay right here. Do not go anywhere at
all. Stay right here and then in the evening, you will see all these people again."
"Yes friend.
Where could I possibly go? I will spend the day here." The dawn came, and
Coyote found himself alone, sitting in the middle of a prairie. He spent the
day there, just dying from the heat, parched by the heat, thirsting from the
heat. Coyote stayed here several days. He would suffer through the day, but
always at night he would make merry in the great lodge. One day his ghost
friend came to him and said, "Tomorrow you will go home. You will take
your wife with you."
"Yes, friend, but
I like it here so much. I am having a good time, and I should like to remain
here."
"Yes," the
ghost replied, "nevertheless, you will go tomorrow, and you must guard
against your inclination to do foolish things [ha' ynaim waku']. Do not yield
to any queer notions. I will advise you now what you are to do. There are five
mountains. You will travel for five days. Your wife will be with you, but you
must never, never touch her. Do not let any strange impulses possess you. You
may talk to her but never touch her. Only after you have crossed and descended
from the fifth mountain, you may do whatever you like."
"Yes,
friend," replied Coyote. When dawn came again Coyote and his wife started.
At first it seemed to him that he was going alone; yet, he was dimly aware of
his wife's presence as she walked along behind. They crossed one mountain, and,
now, Coyote could feel more definitely the presence of his wife. She seemed
like a shadow. They went on and crossed the second mountain. They camped at
night at the foot of each mountain. They had a little conical lodge which they
would set up each time. Coyote's wife would sit on one side of the fire and he
on the other. Her form appeared clearer and clearer.
The death spirit who
had sent them now began to count the days and to figure the distance Coyote and
his wife had covered. "I hope he will do everything right and take his
wife through to the world beyond.," he kept saying to himself.
Coyote and his wife
were spending their last night, their fourth night camping. On the morrow she
would again assume fully the character of a living person. They were camping
for the last time, and Coyote could see her very clearly, as if she were a real
person who sat opposite of him. He could see her face and her body very
clearly, but he only looked and dared not touch her. But suddenly a joyous
impulse seized him; the joy of having his wife again overwhelmed him. He jumped
to his feet and rushed over to embrace her.
His wife cried out,
"Stop! stop, Coyote! Do not touch me. Stop!" Her warning had no
effect. Coyote rushed over to his wife, and just as he touched her body, she
vanished. She disappeared, returned to the shadowland.
When the death spirit
learned of Coyote's folly, he became deeply angry. "You inveterate doer of
this kind of thing! I told you not to do anything foolish. You, Coyote, were
about to establish the practice of returning from death. Only a short time from
now the human race is coming, but you have spoiled everything and established
for them death as it is."
Here Coyote wept and
wept. He decided, "Tomorrow I shall return to see them again." He
started back the following morning. As he went along, he began to recognize the
places where his spirit friend and he had passed and now he began to do the
same things they had done on their way to the shadowland. "Oh, look at the
horses; it looks like a roundup." He went on until he came to the place
where the ghost had found the service berries. "Oh, such choice
service berries! Let us pick and eat some." He went through the motions of
picking and eating berries. He went on and finally came to the place where the
long lodge had stood. He said to himself, "Now, when I take hold of the
door flap and raise it up, you must do the same." Coyote remembered all
the little things his friend had done. He saw the spot where he had sat before.
He went there, sat down, and said, "Now, your wife has brought us food.
Let us eat." He went through the motions of eating again. Darkness fell,
and now Coyote listened for the voices. He looked around; he looked here and
there, but nothing appeared. Coyote sat there in the middle of the prairie. He
sat there all night, but the lodge didn't appear again nor the ghost ever
return to him.[1]
Easter is a good day to celebrate the redemption of Coyote's folly. It is good to remember that the Marriage Supper of the Lamb approaches, because Jesus of Nazareth did for His wife what Coyote didn't.
After reminding me of the story of Coyote in the Shadowlands, Face Rock said,
"Some days, it's a good day to die,
Most days, it's a good day to live."
Then, I remembered something Bob Dylan wrote,
"Oh, the tree of life is growing
Where the spirit never dies
And the bright light of salvation shines In dark and empty skies,
When the cities are on fire
With the burnin' flesh of men,
Just remember that death is not the end
And you search in vain to find
Just one law abiding citizen,
Just remember that death is not the end."[2]
Sam the Chef's Old Tipi Fire Ring |
I had a good visit to Tipi Flat and musing a little with Face Rock. I walked down to where the Tipi used to stand, the one the flat is named for; the fire ring is still there.
It's a good day to be back in the Canyon's warm embrace.
Lawyer Creek Reaches Down to the White Granite |
[1] Donald M.
Hines, Tales of the Nez Perce (Fairfield, WA: Ye Galleon Press, 1984),
82-85
[2] Bob Dylan, "Death is Not the End" Down In The Groove (Special Rider Music, Columbia & Sony, 1988) http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/death-not-end